Dear friends,
Before our regular updates, we first want to take a moment to honor Washington State Senator Bill Ramos, who passed away suddenly over the weekend. Like so many others, we were shocked and saddened to learn about his death, and our hearts go out to his family, friends, and colleagues.
Senator Ramos at Tuxes & Trains 2022 after the passage of Move Ahead Washington.
Senator Ramos was a dedicated public servant and a champion for transit. Before holding public office, he worked for the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Transit Administration, helping to improve public transit in smaller urban communities, rural communities, and tribal lands. In his tenure in the legislature, he served as the vice chair of both the House Transportation Committee and the Senate Transportation Committee. He helped lead the passage of Move Ahead Washington, which secured historic investments in transit, walking, and biking. He’s left a legacy of better transit in Washington and across the country. He will be deeply missed.
The official end of session is this Sunday, April 27th, unless it extends into a special session. Below, you’ll find updates on bills we’ve been supporting as well as the budgets.
Transportation Bills Head to the Governor’s Desk!
After last week’s final cutoff for bills, we’re excited that so many transportation bills are on their way to the governor’s desk, including:
- A bill to encourage transit-oriented housing development (HB 1491). This would require cities to allow more dense housing development near light rail and bus rapid transit stops. TCC and our partners at Futurewise have been advocating for this bill for years, so it’s awesome to finally see it move forward! Read more about it from The Urbanist here.
- A bill establishing shared streets (SB 5595). This would legalize a type of street where cars are allowed, but pedestrians are the priority, and the speed limit is 10 mph. In Seattle, some of these popped up as Healthy Streets during the pandemic, but state law still requires cars to have priority unless a street is closed. This bill would allow cities to create more streets like these with less confusion. Read more about shared streets here.
- A bill to remove driver’s license requirements from certain job postings (SB 5501). This will ensure that if a job doesn’t require driving, the job can’t require applicants to have a driver’s license. It will open up more job opportunities to non-drivers and people who choose not to have a license.
- A bill concerning minimum parking requirements (SB 5184). This would limit parking minimums as a requirement for development. Read more about it from The Urbanist here.
Unfortunately, a couple of bills did not move forward, including:
- A bill to implement safe system approach strategies for active transportation infrastructure (SB 5581). This would have helped prioritize active transportation in WSDOT construction projects and programs by integrating shared-use paths, trails, roundabouts and Complete Streets principles.
- A bill to include tribal representation in certain transportation activities (SB 5374). This would have required better coordination between transportation planning bodies and tribal governments and better tribal representation in state traffic safety efforts
Check out our Bill Tracker for the status of all the bills we’re tracking,
What’s Happening with the Budgets?
Legislators are making progress on the operating budget, and last week passed a number of bills that are “necessary to implement the budget.” One of these was the Commute Trip Reduction tax credit, which passed the House and which we expect to be included in the final budget. This tax credit supports jurisdictions and employers to reduce their employees’ car trips and incentivize taking public transportation.
Legislators have also been holding hearings on new revenue proposals, but there’s a lot of uncertainty as to how that will shake out. After Governor Ferguson signaled he would not support a wealth tax, legislators put together a revised $12 billion revenue proposal. On Thursday, the Governor released a statement indicating that he would like to see a smaller revenue package and more cuts.
Negotiations on the transportation budget have also been moving forward, and we expect a hearing on transportation resources tomorrow, Tuesday, April 22nd. We don’t yet know the details of what will be in the final transportation budget, but we will share them with you as they become public.
Keep an eye on your email for updates and opportunities to take action.
Ride on!
– Transportation Choices
